Telling the truth, and confronting the challenge, is what politics is about.

My working life has always been wrapped up in doing my job to the best of my abilities and doing the best for my family. It is not a contest between the two.

It's true across the U.K. that those who had least to do with causing the economic crisis are carrying the heaviest burden. That's unacceptable.

Maybe I was just born to argue with men.

My biggest ambition is to bring together what happens in the real world with what politicians talk about.

What I will say will not always please you, but what I say will always be honest and true and how I genuinely see it.

The government don't want to talk about the consequences of the choices they make. They pretend there aren't any consequences.